18 February 1713: James Francis Edward Stuart left France and travelled to Lorraine where he would establish his court in exile. James had been forced to leave France by Louis XIV as a precondition for a peace treaty with Britain at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. As part of the Treaty of Utrecht, Louis recognised the Protestant succession and withdrew support for the senior line of the House of Stuart.
18 February 1746: Lieutenant-General Sir John Ligonier wrote from London to the Duke of Cumberland at Perth informing him that Brussels had fallen to the French under Marshal Saxe. There was now a need for the 5,000 hired Hessians now employed in Scotland to be sent to Flanders to support the Allied war effort before the opening of the new campaign season.
18 February 1746: The Jacobite highland division under Charles Edward Stuart arrived at Inverness. John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun decided not to hold the town and withdrew his 2,000 government highlanders across to the Black Isle. Jacobite Colonel John William O’Sullivan was sent to inspect the defences of Inverness Castle/Fort George and preparations were made for a siege.
18 February 1798: The death in London of British Army general and former Jacobite Allan Maclean of Torloisk. Best known for commanding the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) during the American War of Independence, he fought for the Jacobites at the siege of Fort William and the battle of Culloden in 1746.
